ZAKSPEED put in solid performance with Nissan GT-R at third VLN round

Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 with top lap timesTeam Zakspeed ready for 24h-raceLast weekend, the third round of the VLN Championship took place at the Nordschleife and  the last important test ahead of the 24h-race. The strong driver line-up with Tom Coronel, Marc Gassner and Florian Strauss demonstrated a good performance with the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3.

The #24 Nissan GT-R ran well during qualifying on Saturday morning, but the VLN typical traffic plus the competitiveness and close lap times did not allow for a better grid position than P15.

Strauss was the first driver for the four-hour race, but on his way from the pit-lane into the grid formation, the #24 Nissan suffered a technical problem. Following the formation lap, the car was brought back into the pits for repair work. The GT Academy winner from 2013 started the race from the pit-lance straight after the first starting field, but the bad luck was to continue.

From lap four, the team suffered with brake problems, which were resolved after two longer pit-stops. Marc Gassner was next up and handed the car over to the Dutch driver Tom Coronel after eight laps in his stint. The #24 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 eventually crossed the finishing line in a disappointing P17 in the SP9-Class.

Driver Quotes

Tom Coronel:"I am ready for the 24h-race. Despite the problems, the car felt great during my stint. The Nissan is a solid and strong car and we lapped consistent lap times, at the end we were competing in terms of the lap times with the front runners.”

Marc Gassner:"Florian (Strauss) handed the car to me with brake problems and I sat in the pits for quite some time, but once we fixed it the car was running very well. I had a few problems with understeering since we lost temperature in the tyres.”

Florian Strauss:"This was not the weekend we had hoped for, but we were still able to take away some experience and improvements. We are pleased with the pace of the car and confident about the 24h-race.”


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